I'm currently looking at having a set of road wheels and offroad wheels on my commuter/winter hardtail.
What I don't know before I hit the buy button is if the disk rotor is going to be in the same place, ie the same offset from the hub with different hubs ? Does it vary with centrelock vs 6 bolt.
If they can be different then that will scupper my plans as means two sets of wheels or adjusting the brake caliper every weekend.
thanks for the help
It's almost impossible to say.
I've got two sets of wheels for one of my bikes that both have Hope hubs and rotors, and the brake calipers don't require adjusting when I switch them round. So my advice would be to get wheels with the exact same hubs and rotors.
Even if the rotors sit in exactly the same position on the hubs, its actually the axle width that can make a difference to where the caliper sits, as the forks/stays usually flex in or out when the QR/bolt is tightened.
If you were to buy two sets of wheels, both running QR skewers front and back, and the hub axles happen to have locknuts (i.e. threaded axles as opposed to press-fit bearings), then if you find there's a difference in rotor/pad alignment, you could compensate by fitting a thin washer behind the axle locknut.
Some are, some aren't. My two sets of wheels for my CX are near enough the same. The two sets I have for one mtb (b+ and 29er) are significantly out.
You can get shims to adjust the position of one of the rotors to reduce/remove the problem though I've not bothered - I just adjust the caliper.
As above; caliper adjustment is very quick once you get used to it.
I tried swapping wheels on the Kona between XTR hubs with centrelock rotors and Hope with Hope rotors. The disk was a fraction out. The brakes though were XTR which required shimming to adjust - pain in the balls.
If I were going to continue with it I think I'd have shimmed the disk rotor on the Hopes - it was about the thickness of one of those thin shims.
I have no problems with two wheelsets both using Hope hubs. I don't think I could be arsed with adjusting calipers every time.
Be wary that when you're using one set significantly more than the others you will inevitably get to a point where the cassette is shagged on one and thus you'll be swapping chains around too. At this point it becomes significantly more hassle than it's worth.
I swap the cassette too but I accept that's a bit more work...
I have Mavic Allroad Discs and Mavic Pro Discs for the Tripster. Both with XT rotors. Straight swap, no rub.
Did have some different brand rotors, but there was a bit of disc contact, so swapped to the XTs.
Tried it- both rotors AND gears needed adjusting so became less hassle to just swap tyres.
Need identical hubs to guarantee easy fit.